Review, Rant, & Bonus Writing Workout

I've never been a big fan of writing prompts, which is odd considering that the segment "Writing Workouts" on this blog is basically a writing prompt plus a greater purpose. But I bought Bryan Cohen's "1,000 Creative Writing Prompts" anyway because it was one dollar and I figured I might get a little practice out of it. Instead, I was reminded why traditional writing prompts bother me so much.

The problem with this book of writing prompts, and writing prompts in general, is that they are too often too specific. With the situation so detailed already, there's little room for the writer's own creativity. This is probably preferable to those who are trying creative writing for the first time, but most writer wouldn't want to be drawn to predetermined outcomes.

So what kind of writing prompts do I actually like? One of my favorites from my time in my school's Creative Writing Club was based on the web series, the Flipside, by the youtube channel, Soul Pancake. In the videos, the world looks like our own and the characters look like people we know, but one thing is off. A high school's debate team is more celebrated than its football team. Kids are the ones who have to raise their parents. The president of my school's club showed us a couple of these videos then gave us the prompt: "Write a story set in world that's exactly like our own but change one specific thing."* Vague. Simple. Open-ended. This is the philosophy I use when blogging my own Writing Workouts. Ready. Set. Go.

P.S. I really like the prompts on writeworld. You should check them out.

*I wrote about a world where eating was considered a taboo subject just like going to the bathroom was considered a taboo subject in Victorian England. 

Why Don't Your Characters Have Siblings?

     John Green once answered this question on his youtube channel by saying that "It's just my little way of telling Hank [his brother] that he doesn't exist in my narrative imagination." But when one thinks about it, the amount of only children in Young Adult fiction is disproportional to real life. Are YA readers and writers narcissists who prefer to escape into a world where they don't have to share everything with their brothers and sisters? Probably. But there's another reason that's a bit more literary.

      The truth is that siblings in books are just as much a hassle as they are in real life. Writing and rewriting is the practice of cutting out all unnecessary plot lines, dialogue, and characters. Siblings, unless the novel deals specifically with family issues, are often irrelevant baggage for a main character. 

     This is especially true for Young Adult characters since most of them at least begin their stories living in the family unit. Siblings can't realistically be the adult sister that lives out in Oregon and keeps bugging the main character to come see her son's soccer games. Siblings in Young Adult novels will be present when the main character comes home from flirting with vampires, or preventing the apocalypse, or whatever it is kids do these days. They can't be mentioned passingly on one or two pages if the main character sees them every day.

     To add to this narcism, siblings are only included in YA novels when they drive along the main character's plot line. If not for Prim, who would Katniss have volunteered for? If Liesel's little brother hadn't died, how would Death have first met her? Selfish? Yes. Practical? Absolutely. The moral is cut excess material from your story at all costs, even if it means killing off the kid brother.

Best Movie Adaptation Soundtracks

                *Digs self out of snow bank* Helloooo Internet! It's my spring break and it's 37 degrees out, because Minnesota that's why. So I'm staying inside and watching movies and getting some writing done, until I leave for NYC on Monday.

                I've had a crazy week full of all the deadlines and responsibilities one's senior year is not supposed to have. While caring for my life as a suburban hack, I've been listening to a lot of music, specifically, the Catching Fire Movie Soundtrack. It has brought together all my favorite artists to make badass post-apocalyptic music. My favorites are "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Lorde and "Silhouettes" by Of Monsters and Men. This got me thinking about all the great soundtracks of movie adaptation of books. Here are my top picks:

1. The First Hunger Games Movie

                While the Catching Fire soundtrack focused mostly on the sinister capital and the cruelty of the arena, the first movie's soundtrack explored Katniss's rural roots of District 12, making for an awesome folk rock album, the best of which are the haunting "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars and "Run Daddy Run" by Miranda Lambert ft. The Pistol Annies.

2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon

                The Twilight movies got a lot of things wrong, but the soundtracks are not one of them. New Moon's soundtrack is filled with dreamy, alternative rock love songs that can almost make me forgive Lautner's acting (almost). My favorites are "Meet Me by the Equinox" by Death Cab for Cutie and "Satellite Heart" by Anya Marina.

 

3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

                No original songs on this one, but like the book, the movie is centered around beloved late 80s and early 90s tracks. The soundtrack includes memorable pieces such as "Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners, "Heroes" by David Bowie, and, who can forget, "Asleep" by the Smiths.

4. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

                When remaking a childhood classic starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, it's important to know one's audience. So the producers chose the punk pop artists they knew their slightly alternative teenage audience (myself included) would love. I've had "Painting Flowers" by All Time Low and "Always Running Out of Time" by Motion City Soundtrack on my iPod for years.

                Why are movie-adaptation soundtracks so awesome? Language and music are intertwined. Readers find songs that fit the books that they are reading. Many writers write listening to music that fits their scenes. Music lets us relive and enhance the feelings we had while reading or writing our favorite stories. Plus, listening to one song is also a lot quicker than rewatching an entire movie or rereading an entire book.

Five Reasons You Need to Read Code Name Verity Right Now

As a spy, "Verity" can talk her way out of any situation. But not this one. She has been captured by the Gestapo in Occupied France and given one deal. In exchange for a cleaner execution, she will confess everything she knows about the Allied war effort. But she is not going to make it easy. Every secret is wrapped in the amazing story of her friendship with the pilot, Maddie, showing the extraordinary bravery and humanity that led her to this point.

                I cried for about two hours straight over this book last night, but think I might be in the right state of mind to make a recommendation now. My recommendation is read it. Plow through the ten inches of snow outside your door right now to your local book store or library and pick up this book. Here's why:

1. It is a female driven novel.

                I fell in love with the narrator, Verity, on the first page. She is caustic, witty and entirely human. Her plotline is not driven by tragic romance, as women are often consumed with in war novels, but her extraordinary friendship with a British woman pilot, Maddie. It is also the first World War II novel I have heard of were woman in the Allied effort take center stage. Wein, an avid pilot herself, actually wrote the novel after being inspired by her research into female pilots during World War II.

2. The females are complex

                Verity and Maddie are the brand of skilled and courageous Britain is looking for, but their strength as characters go beyond their ability. They have moments of stress and weakness, as is imaginable with being tortured by the Gestapo. The women of Code Name Verity feel pride, shame, hopelessness, and bravery. Even the supporting female characters, such as Verity's Nazi supervisor, Engel, are much more than they seem on the surface.

3. It explains wartime procedures without justifying them

                 Wein does not try to push the envelope by excusing Nazi behavior by writing it off as intense patriotism. Von Lindon, Gestapo officer and director of Verity's torture, is a fully developed character, with a teenage daughter and a love of literature. But he does not get excused from the brutal acts he commits. Both sides of the war are portrayed as completely human, but neither gets a pass from war crimes.

4. It made me cry harder than The Fault in Our Stars

                And that's saying something.

5. The book is a total mind game.

                Can we trust a spy writing to the enemy as a narrator? Wein takes the line of unreliable narration and jump ropes with it. Verity may just as easily be playing a trick on the readers as she may be on the Nazis. When the plot finally came together, I literally screamed. Seriously, this book is frustratingly brilliant.

Writing Workout: Not Dirty But Little Secrets

     Ooh, today I have a creative nonfiction prompt for you all. Don't get too excited, this is mainly to soothe my own weird habits. I was just wondering if I am the only one who holds onto little secrets. Not big, family shattering secrets, just moments that are memorable because they were stressful at the time. Even though all this time has passed and now your worries seem trivial, it's still something that is embarassing to talk about.

     For example, in the eighth grade I dropped my math textbook and the binding broke from the spine. Back then I had all of ten dollars to my name and textbooks costed $75 minimum to replace. The teachers told us that if we had any of these unpaid fees by the time we graduated from high school, our diploma would be withheld. One can imagine how this would make an anxious little thing like thirteen year old me panic.
     So I did the most logical option my tiny brain could think of and told no one. I waited to fix the textbook till the very last day of middle school. The morning before I had to turn the book in, I used a poxy that took 24 hours to dry. Without checking to see if the poxy had worked, I turned my book back in.
     Nearly four years later, I still haven't heard a word about that textbook. But I still haven't told anybody about what happened. I supposed that I am embarassed that I didn't ask for help. I could have saved myself a lot of preteen angst if I viewed the issue with the forward thinking I have now. Again this is a completely trivial moment in my life, but I still remember it vividly.

     ANYWAY, my embarrassing middle school stories aside, here is your challenge. Write about a secret you haven't told very many people even though it is not at all a big deal. Why haven't you told anybody? Looking back on it now, what would you have done differently? The trick is to make your story relevant to a wider audience by finding a message in your own misguided adventures. Relevance is the key to great creative nonfiction.

     And now, because it has been stuck in your head since you read the title, here is Dirty Little Secret by the All American Rejects. Now this post is a complete throwback to middle school.

Writing Workout: Awkward Stock Photos Challenge

                Thanks to the polar vortex, my school is going on a six day weekend. The downside is I was supposed to take my Statistics final six days ago. The upside is all this free time has enabled me to get some work done on my novel, work on finishing the Crash Course literature reading list, and come up with a new writing workout.

                The concept is ridiculously simple and also simply ridiculous. Pick a photo from Awkward Stock Photos and try to write an at least semi-logical short story about it. The point of this exercise is to learn to write yourself out of seemingly impossible situations, for when you have writer's block or need to up your word count on Nanowrimo. If you can't think of anything good, write all the possible ways the story could go. Then choose the best one and go with it.

Here are some pictures to choose from, or pick one from the Awkward Stock Photos blog:

                             Uptight boss who keeps the meeting going even after a gas leak?

               New smartphone that punches user whenever he or she posts something stupid online?

                                                    I don't even know what to tell you.